Peggy Revell
A fourth-place finish here in Thunder Bay-Rainy River didn’t damper Ed Shields’ spirits Monday night as history was made with the election of Green Party leader Elizabeth May to the House of Commons.
“[With] Elizabeth in, I think we can regain our footing very rapidly because our party’s just wonderful,” said the political rookie, referring to May becoming the first elected Green MP in Canadian history by winning the British Columbia riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands.
Her win over Conservative cabinet minister Gary Lunn was offset, however, by a drop in Green support across the country—from 6.8 percent of the vote garnered in the 2008 election to just 3.91 percent this time around.
The Green vote also dropped locally—falling to 909 from 1,377 two-and-a-half years ago.
The surge in support for the NDP, as well as vote-splitting, did hurt the Green Party across the country, noted Shields.
He felt “people that vote Conservative” are hard to move while other voters can vary between the Liberals, NDP, and Greens depending on the situation.
But while Shields is happy the NDP did well Monday night, one thing he’s not “too happy” about is the Conservative majority.
“I’m shocked to be perfectly candid with you,” he remarked. “I just can’t believe, with all the problems the Conservatives have had, that so many people voted for them.
“To me, I just can’t explain it. As a scientist, I just can’t explain it.”
Despite the loss of votes for the Greens, Shields tossed his support behind incumbent NDP MP John Rafferty—even paying a visit to his victory party Monday night to offer his congratulations.
“John Rafferty is a great guy and he’ll do a wonderful job as he did the last time,” said Shields, remaining optimistic about both the future of the riding and his experience running for the first time.
But at 66 years of age, he hasn’t thought yet whether or not he’ll be tossing his hat into the ring for the next election four years down the road.
“It was a wonderful experience and I met some terrific people, so for me it’s been a great experience and I’ve learned a lot,” Shields remarked.
“I hope that I pushed the Green Party a bit so we can get some people to understand what we’re after, and that’s really what my objective was.”
And having May in Parliament will “change everything” for the party, he added.
“Just like the NDP, they were a non-entity for many, many years and all of a sudden they’ve come along,” he explained.
“And I think the Green Party can do the same thing. I think we will come with the future,” he added, feeling that people will take notice with the rise of global warming and realize that this is the type of thing his party has been talking about for years.
“I think our time will come.”
